Jan. 29, 2018 -- When second graders read a story in their class reading series about a child who invents something new, what’s the natural next step? Well, to invent something of their own, of course.
That is exactly what the students in Marisa Pollutro’s class at Fairfax did recently. After they spent a week reading A Super Invention in their SuperKids primer, they discussed the many reasons new products are designed; to make things easier, to make things more fun, to make things better, or to make it possible for people to do new things.
Each student then chose one of those reasons and designed their own invention. Most students picked the reason that hits closest to home for seven- and eight-year-olds: to make things more fun. They designed toys and games, some completely original, others inspired by favorite items they had at home.
Nylah Starr took the familiar board game Jinx and redesigned it with new rules to create the “more fun” version, Jinxer. Malcolm McFarland was inspired by Castle Panic, but his new game uses humans instead of monsters.
Morgan Hawkins created an oversized three-dimensional folder “like a jewelry box, to protect the precious things that you enjoy.” And both Laura Forsythe and Ryan McMahon wanted to make life easier with their cleaning inventions.
Ryan’s looks like a dustpan the size of a pizza box (because it is indeed made out of a pizza box), with buttons on the side so that it can sort all the objects it sucks off the floor. Those objects will then be dispensed out of shoots to their proper location: toy bin, trash can, recycling, and so on. Laura’s works more like a traditional vacuum but “it makes cleaning your room more fun.”
Students had to go through several steps in their design process, including drawing a blueprint, building and revising their invention out of found and recycled materials, and then writing up a description of what it is, how it works and why it’s useful. “Most kids had great ideas,” said Mrs. Pollutro. “But they struggled with actually creating them.”
The project has been ongoing for more than a month. “We keep referring back to it, when we read other stories or think about all the technology and inventions we rely on every day.”
Brock Mueller’s invention, the Bookmark 2.0, is one of a handful that came out fully functional. The specialized bookmark allows you to mark the exact line on a page where you stop reading. “Sometimes you don't read all the way to the bottom of a page, but stop in the middle instead,” he said. “This lets you find your spot without having to reread the entire page to figure out where you left off.”
His inspiration was quite simple: “I love to read. And sometimes I lose my spot.”
As Mrs. Pollutro has told her students many times in the past weeks, “You just might become the next big inventor.” Perhaps for something as simple but necessary as a bookmark.